Absolutely massive vintage camera auction, Adelaide 13/14/15 Sept

Holy hell. Just thought I'd check Scammell's website to see if anything's listed on next Monday's auction worth buying.
And instead I come across what looks like half a museum worth of old microscopes and cameras, so big it's spread across three days:First looks to be all microscopes and stuff on the 13th.Second is magic lanterns, literally hundreds of slides (I even noticed a nice carbon road bike with Dura Ace componentry I might nab) on the 14th.Third are cameras. So many cameras. I count over 20 Rolleiflex/cord TLRs, SL35 and 66, a few Leicas (including a Leica 1f that they claim is 1 of only 20 made, if it's true then their $1500-2000 estimate might get blown out by a bit). A veritable plethora of 1/2 and 1/4 plate camers. Hell, there's even a Graflex Big Bertha with a 40" f/8 lens.

I'm very tempted not to share, keep it all to myself and not get outbid, but I've got a house and mortgage (even if I sold said house I couldn't afford all the stuff here), and a week before that I'm paying a guy good money to stab me in the face and chisel out some teeth, so my spending shall be somewhat curtailed (down to $0), and if anyone here reading this end up buying anything at least I'll be happy knowing it's going to a good home (and hopefully getting used, as they should).
I'll probably be there to inspect though, it's a GAS wet-dream...

An awful lot of electrons were terribly inconvenienced in the making of this post.

Apparently there was piece on local TV about it. The story I was told is that the owner is 74 and last year was hit by a truck, losing an arm and a leg. As a result he can't manage to care for the collection anymore and has decided to sell it all. There are some pieces I'd be interested in if only there were decent photographs to properly identify them. As it is I just regard it as lucky that I live in another state and thus can't attend and spend more money.

Is this auction local to Australia? The website doesn't seem to offer any information on who is eligible to bid.

From what I've read of the T&Cs, there's nothing stopping you from bidding from anywhere.
Except that generally you have to pick the item up within a day after the auction (I'm sure you could send a courier, but you'd have to pay them to pack it up for shipping). Or I could pick up anything, but I can't promise I won't play with it first...

An awful lot of electrons were terribly inconvenienced in the making of this post.

Bike is here, they reckon $15-1800. Too bad I just bought my (NOS) Giant TCR with Ultegra gears and 105 brakes in the xmas-sales last year for that price.

There's way to much stuff on that site, it's going to be a massive warehouse rummage by the looks. Try typing a few keywords into the search box. 'rollei' turns up 150 results, 'camera' gets 200 hits, 'leitz' gets 170 (including some grab-bags of what they're calling "parts", I can see some lenses and visoflex gear estimated under $100, if there's an LTM lens in there it'll be worth more than the box), and 'zeiss' gets 100 hits.
Just inspecting is going to be a fun day out for the family (or leave the missus at home to work on her phd, i'll quietly slip out and pack the falcon full of goodies...)

Last edited by Dr Croubie; 08-19-2013 at 08:03 PM. Click to view previous post history.

An awful lot of electrons were terribly inconvenienced in the making of this post.

It's possible this fellow is a well-known collector in specific collectors' circles? Where, pray tell, would he have kept all this stuff? Likely a lot of very rare stuff that could potentially make him a mint — good for him; if the accident thing is true the money might help to modifying his house to improve accessibility. Sounds very bad to come off in an accident like that.